Musg-10 Lectures Week 11 Emily Wallace Updated: F2021 Chapter 7 Minor Scales and Keys 11-1 - Natural Minor Keys And Scales Wallace MUSG 10 F2020 Minor Mode vs Major Mode ● “Mode” is another word for a type of scale. ● We learned about DIATONIC SCALES - they have the same Whole and half step pattern everytime. ○ Major Scale: WWhWWWh ○ This week: Minor Scales ● Most common modes or scales: Major and Minor ● Sometimes songs switch between “modes” meaning they go from Major to Minor or vice versa. Minor Scales ● As diatonic scales, minor scales have W/h patterns like MAJOR SCALES ● 3 types of minor scale: ● NATURAL MINOR (on your exam) W h W W h W W ● HARMONIC MINOR (only on your textbook exercises) W h W W h W W (and then RAISE (#) the 7) ● MELODIC MINOR (only on your textbook exercises) W h W W W W h (and descending, back to natural minor scale) ● For this class, we will mostly focus on Natural Minor scales Different sounds and moods: Major modes : “Happy” or “Bright” mood :) Major scales and Major chords sound bright. Open, and happy. Listen: Major Scale Sounds Listen: can you hear the difference between the major chord (played 1st) and minor chord? (played 2nd?) Minor modes : “Sad”, or “complicated” mood feeling :( Minor scales and minor chords sound sad, complicated, or dark. Listen: minor scale sounds Building Natural Minor Scale: using step pattern Just like with the Major Scale, the Natural Minor Scale consists of a series of whole and half steps. You can easily build a NATURAL MINOR SCALE from any note using the pattern below: ****notice that this pattern is different from the major scale pattern!!! Building Natural Minor Scale using step pattern: cont “A” minor scale, using W h W W h W W pattern “C” minor scale, using W h W W h W W pattern A minor Key signature ---> C minor Key signature ---> Review: Importance of Scale Degrees REmember, our scale degrees are positions on the scale. Here is our major scale, actually a better starting point for making minor scales! 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Distinct Features: NATURAL MINOR SCALE Major Scale: “Happy” sounding 3rd scale degree - higher up Minor Scales: “Sad” 3rd scale degree - flat! Better thought of in this class as “altered” from the major scale. Another way to build a minor scale is to START with the MAJOR SCALE, and then alter it. Creating a Minor Scale from A Major Scale Another way to build a minor scale is to START with the MAJOR SCALE, and then alter it by lowering scale degrees “3”, “6”, and “7” a half step. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (major) 1 2 (3 ♭ ) 4 5 ( 6 ♭ ) ( 7 ♭ ) (8) (altered to minor) This means the key signatures change! Note the difference between the Whole and Half step patterns of these two scales. The first is our Major scale pattern we have already learned: The second is the minor scale pattern created by taking a major scale and altering it by lowering scale degrees “3”, “6”, and “7” a half step : Let Create a Minor Scale! Using C Major: Creating C Minor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 ♭ 4 5 1 2 3 ♭ 4 5 6 ♭ 1 2 3 ♭ 4 5 6 ♭ 7 ♭ Parallel Keys When you alter a major scale to create a natural minor, you create the PARALLEL minor scale to that MAJOR key. Parallel Major and Minor Keys start on the SAME note. C Major > C Minor (like what we just created). E Major > E minor , etc. The tonic (scale degree 1) is the same. The name is also similar: G Major, G minor; A Major, A minor Parallel minor scales will have different key signatures! Minor keys have key signatures. We altered C Major with 3 flats, so C minor has 3 flats in the key signature. Let’s do another example By altering A Major (3#’s) To a minor! Pictured here is A Major: You can see it has 3#’s. First we Lower (with a ♭ ) 3, 6, 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 ♭ 4 5 6 ♭ 7 ♭ (8) A B C ♮ D E F ♮ G ♮ (A) Notice that the 3 #’s in A Major become cancelled with the lowering of 3,6,7. They turn to ♮ Relative minor scales : Major and Minor scales which have the same key signature - Do NOT start on same note. - Have the SAME key signature! - therefore same pitches - but starting on different notes! - Relative minor scale is the “6”th scale degree of the Major scale. Key Signature for A Minor Key Signature for C Major